She was jailed 13 days, then cops realized they arrested wrong woman, CA lawsuit says
A California woman who says she spent 13 days in jail in a case of mistaken identity has now filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department.
On April 16, Bethany K. Farber was headed to Puerto Escondido, Mexico from Los Angeles when she was stopped by Transportation Security Administration agents. They told her that she wasn’t allowed to board her flight and escorted her to a private room, thelawsuit filed Feb. 22 says.
There, she was interrogated and prevented from boarding her flight. She was calm when she asked what was going on, but officers said they would tighten her handcuffs if she “made any scene,” the lawsuit says.
She spent two hours handcuffed while in TSA custody and wasn’t given any food or water, causing her to become “extremely weak and dehydrated,” the lawsuit said.
Agents told her that she had been kept from boarding her flight because there was a warrant out for her arrest in Texas. According to the lawsuit, they had mixed her up with another Bethany Farber as the woman in their custody told them she had never been to Texas.
“I asked them repeatedly to double check and they completely blew me off,” Farber told ABC 7. “They said, ‘Nope, Bethany Farber, we have you.’”
Farber was then arrested by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Airport Police, the lawsuit says, adding that Farber’s identity and drivers’ license were not verified before her arrest.
The LAPD, LAX police and City of Los Angeles did not immediately respond to requests for comment from McClatchy News. “LAPD and LAX police told ABC7 they do not comment on pending litigation,” according to the news station.
According to the lawsuit, the two Bethany Farbers “had nothing in common besides their name.” The one who was arrested is “a young woman with long, blonde hair” and the other one is older and has short brown hair.
If police had looked at pictures of the two women, they would have realized the blonde Bethany Farber “should not have been arrested at all,” the lawsuit said.
“Now what’s interesting, at the time Miss Farber is booked, the police do nothing to confirm whether or not this Bethany Farber is that Bethany Farber,” Farber’s attorney, Rodney Diggs, told ABC 7. “This Bethany Farber, from what we understand, has an extensive criminal history. Her fingerprints are in the database.”
Farber spent 13 days in jail, “despite the stark contrast between [her] and the other Bethany Farber,” the lawsuit said. She was able to call her family and tell them what had happened, and they began trying to sort things out on her behalf. But the news of her arrest shocked her grandmother, who then had a stroke, the lawsuit said.
Farber’s grandmother “never recovered from her stroke” and died shortly after Farber’s release, the lawsuit said. As a result, Farber, who was close to her grandmother, “suffered extreme emotional distress, anxiety, and mental anguish,” according to the lawsuit.
“[Farber] never expected to be incarcerated, nor did she ever expect to witness the things … that occurred within the walls of Lynwood Women’s Jail,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit accuses the Los Angeles Police Department and City of Los Angeles of unlawful seizure, unlawful arrest, false imprisonment, negligence, and cruel and unusual punishment. It seeks damages to compensate for the cost of the lawsuit, attorney’s fees, and for pain and suffering.
“From law-abiding citizen to inmate overnight, Bethany is now suffering from anxiety and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder,” Diggs said in a news release. “While asking for monetary compensation, she is also looking for reform to a broken justice system that has violated the basic tenets of the US Constitution — innocent until proven guilty.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 3:53 PM with the headline "She was jailed 13 days, then cops realized they arrested wrong woman, CA lawsuit says."